Goals and Accountability

It is my opinion that to be successful in achieving a goal, I need to be accountable, not just to myself, but to at least one other individual. I have set numerous “good goals” in my life. Some of those goals were like my New Year’s resolutions. They only lasted for a few day or a few weeks. Why didn’t they last? They didn’t last because I was only accountable to myself. I could cheat and no one would know.

So how does that pertain to setting goals to support my recovery? Well, I could be accountable to the entire group, but I probably won’t do that. Or if I did, it would be sporadic, therefor not effective.

So what are my options? Maybe, it would be good to choose one person to report to. It could be my support person, or my bishop, or just someone else in the group; I just need to pick someone But it needs to be someone that I can have access to on a regular basis, either in person, on the phone, or by text or email. If I have multiple goals, I could even report different goals to different people.

One success story I can share is my goal to read the scriptures first thing every morning. (Click here to read the background on that goal) When I set that goal I decided to report to the person who gave me the idea. At first I was reporting to him by text almost every day. After a while I began reporting less frequently. I am currently reporting to him about once a week.

But without that first effort to report almost every day, I may not have been successful.

I have another goal: to attend the temple once a week. But I haven't found anyone in particular to report that goal to. If you are interested in my reporting that to you, just let me know.

I would be interested in finding someone willing to exchange goals. I will report my goal to you and you report your goal to me. That way there would be mutual support and mutual accountability. In other words, “If he can do it, I can do it!”